By FRANK RAI
The Team Enga soccer girls will not defend their gold medal in the 3rd PNG Games after going down to Team Eastern Highlands 2-0 yesterday during the quarter finals at the Lae Football Association (LFA) soccer field.
The Eastern Highlanders dominated the game to the last minute to score two goals to upset the gold medal defenders.
Team EHP young striker Christy Sogavo scored the second goal before full time to seal the game.
The first goal was scored by mid fielder Toris Eric before half time.
Team Enga women’s soccer team struggled through the last three days to draw two games and win one to qualify for the finals but would not proceed further.
The game was dominated mostly by Team EHP where the Enga girls would not even penetrate the goal area.
Coach Jolly Johns attributed the loss to the lack of preparation before they traveled down to Lae.
“I would not blame the girls on their performance because there are some contributing factors to it,” he said.
“And first of all is the financial problem that we had to face back in Enga before coming here to defend the title. Another problem was the heat which the girls could not cope well with.”
He also said the current team was made up of inexperienced players with only seven players from the team that won the gold medal in women’s soccer at the 2nd PNG Games at Goroka in 2005.